Offers writers and artists a supportive environment immersed in nature with the opportunity to focus on experimentation or the development or completion of a project. The facilities include private room, studio/ work space, shared full bathroom, nourishing home prepared meals, walking trails. The property is nestled in the northern Taconic Mountains with nearby access to historic towns and cultural venues.

# Confluence Hollow — Program Description

Confluence Hollow is an artist residency rooted in the Nebraska Sandhills, founded by working mixed media artist and educator Tim O'Neill (Tim O'Neill Studios). The program is currently in its early development and due-diligence phase, and we are joining the Artist Communities Alliance to learn from the field as we build toward our first hosted residencies.

## Why "Confluence Hollow"

The name reflects both the physical geography of the region, where creeks, rivers, and watersheds meet across the Sandhills, and the spirit of the program itself: a place where disciplines, practices, and people converge. "Hollow" grounds that convergence in a specific, inhabitable place rather than an abstract idea. We wanted a name that could function the way the best residency names do, as a place first, a program second.

## Founder Background and Motivation

Tim O'Neill has spent over four decades building a working creative practice spanning encaustic, oil and cold wax, resin, silk dyeing, eco printing, and mixed media collage, alongside a parallel career teaching art, humanities and coaching at the Middle school, high school and college level. He also currently teaches experimental art workshops at the Prairie Arts Center, where he has developed entry-level, hands-on programming for adult learners.

That dual life, studio practice and education, is the foundation Confluence Hollow is built on. Years of teaching workshops to adult beginners, watching artists rediscover process-based, tactile work after long stretches in digital or production-driven creative careers, surfaced a recurring need: time and space without urgency. Not a retreat in the spa sense, and not a production residency oriented around output quotas, but something closer to what slow food is to fast food, a deliberate counter to hustle-culture creative practice.

This instinct is also personal. O'Neill's own relationship to land, water, and the Sandhills landscape directly informs his studio work, and he wanted to build a program that gives other artists access to that same kind of grounding, the specific, quiet, expansive character of this part of Nebraska, which is largely absent from the current national residency map.

## Mission

Confluence Hollow exists to give working artists uninterrupted time, modest but well-equipped studio space, and direct contact with the Sandhills landscape, without the pressure of public-facing output, sales expectations, or productivity metrics. We are especially interested in supporting artists working in process-intensive, tactile, or slow media (encaustic, fiber, printmaking, hand bookbinding, natural dye, and related practices), though the program is not exclusive to those disciplines.

We believe meaningful creative work often requires friction-removal rather than stimulation, fewer inputs, not more programming, and we are designing Confluence Hollow around that belief from the ground up.

## Who We Hope to Serve

Our initial focus is on:

- Mid-career and established artists who have an active studio practice but limited access to dedicated, distraction-free time
- Artists working in encaustic, mixed media, fiber, natural dye, and other tactile/process-based disciplines that benefit from extended, uninterrupted studio access
- Artists interested in working in direct relationship to a specific rural ecology — the Sandhills grasslands, wetlands, and waterways — rather than a generic studio environment

As the program matures, we anticipate developing secondary tracks (short workshop-based residencies, possible international exchange components), but our founding focus is a small, well-supported, single-track model rather than a broad multi-program launch.

## Current Stage of Development

Confluence Hollow is in early, active development. We are currently:

- Evaluating organizational structure (independent nonprofit, fiscal sponsorship, or operation under an existing studio entity)
- Assessing physical space and site requirements for studio and living accommodations
- Researching governance, insurance, and liability considerations specific to hosting resident artists
- Building a realistic financial model for a small-scale, sustainable launch rather than scaling prematurely

We recognize this puts us at the very beginning of the field's typical program lifecycle, and we are seeking ACA membership specifically as an Emerging Program in order to learn directly from peer programs who have navigated this same early-stage process, particularly around organizational structure, funding models, and the practical realities of hosting artists for the first time.

## Why ACA

We are drawn to ACA because the field-level knowledge it offers, programmatic, legal, financial, and ethical, is exactly the kind of accumulated expertise that is difficult to reconstruct independently, and because we want Confluence Hollow to be built thoughtfully from its foundation rather than retrofitted later. We are also drawn to ACA's emphasis on equitable and generative creative environments, which aligns directly with our founding intention: a residency that removes pressure rather than adding to it, and that treats time itself as the primary resource being offered to artists.

We see ACA membership not as a credential to acquire, but as the educational foundation we need before we host our first resident artist. We look forward to learning from the network, and in time, contributing back to it as Confluence Hollow develops from an early-stage concept into an active program.

WildHeart: Center for Performance and Embodiment Practice is a land-based culture hub that incubates new performances, cultivates deep community and hosts transformational events.

Manifesto-

Our bodies are cultured.

Our embodiment practice (and unexamined habitual patterning!) channels into our artmaking.

Art shapes culture.

And the culture we co-create circles back around to shape our bodies.

We can interrupt the default course of this cycle at any point:
with critical thinking and strategic detox from the overculture’s impact on our bodies;
with embodiment practice that repatterns how we self-express;
with art that affirms life, honors all bodies, opens regenerative possibilities.

This is our work:
to support a spiral of cultural, embodied, creatively expressed love.

Located in the Hudson River Valley, between Beacon and New Palz, on Schaghticoke and Munsee Lenape ancestral land.

Mission
1. Performance Incubation
2. Deep Community
3. Transformational Events
 

Much administrative, manual and emotional labor supports these priorities. In the nitty-gritty of walking the walk, we provide food and housing, land access, studio space, event planning, logistical coordination, and marketing outreach.

Located on the southwest coast of Washington, we are both a historic lodge and vintage trailer resort, and the home of Sou’wester Arts, a nonprofit organization offering artist residencies, workshops, and community programs year-round.

The Sou’wester is just a ten-minute walk from the shoreline. Nestled between towering pines and the Pacific Ocean, it offers a rare balance of quiet solitude and creative community. Through our nonprofit branch, Sou’wester Arts (501c3), we host a range of artist residencies designed to support experimentation, reflection, and connection:

Sou’wester Arts also facilitates opportunities for visiting artists to collaborate with our local preschool, creating intergenerational exchanges that celebrate play, imagination, and the creative process.

Residents enjoy a stay in one of over 30 vintage trailers, minimalist trailers, 4 cozy cabins, or 5 historic lodge suites.

During your stay, you’ll have access to Tuesday afternoon tea and zine-making gatherings, unlimited coffee, forested nooks, communal spaces and optional private bookings in the Garden Spa & Finnish Sauna or Tea Trailer.

Residenza Lago Scuro is a self-directed Interdisciplinary residency offering creatives the chance to explore their practice, exchange ideas, and make work while living on, and learning about, a beautiful regenerative farm in Northern Italy. 

Naples Art Institute is a place to discover, learn about, and engage with the art of our time. As a cornerstone of Naples’ cultural landscape, we welcome artists, students, and visitors to explore the powerful connection between observing and creating art. Our mission is to serve as a catalyst for a more connected, creative, and informed community. At our core, we hold the belief that art has the power to positively impact both individuals and communities. Our aim is to provide a platform for a variety of perspectives and voices, with the hope of using our cultural influence to promote inclusive and contemporary ideas, foster meaningful dialogue, and showcase art that reflects the present day. Through these efforts, we strive to contribute to the advancement of a more united and cohesive community.